#Plot

Russell F. Hirsch

Descriptive Language that Sparkles

Kill your darlings! Get to the point! Plot over prose! How many times have you heard advice about simplifying your writing for middle...

Russell F. Hirsch

SIWC - Simply Inspiring Writers' Conference

We all know the feeling of finding our tribe. Whether we were kids discovering new friends on the playground, teens navigating a new...

Russell F. Hirsch

Lessons from a First Novel: Worldbuilding from the Inside-Out

Perhaps nothing simultaneously excites and intimidates a fantasy author as much as worldbuilding—crafting the geography, history,...

Russell F. Hirsch

The Impossible and Inevitable Potter

Today is Harry Potter’s 37th birthday and in homage to the birthday boy-who-lived and the continuing summer festivities marking the 20th...

Russell F. Hirsch

Further Reading & Feminist Alternatives to the Hero’s Journey

Further Resources on the Hero’s Journey I hope you’ve found my summary of hero’s journey plot lines useful, but there is really no...

Russell F. Hirsch

The Hero’s Journey – Resolution

Happy New Year to all! We have reached the 10th and final stage of a hero’s journey plot line and a fitting stage it is for January 1st...

Russell F. Hirsch

The Hero’s Journey – Climax!

Huzzah! We have reached the Climax, the grand hurrah, the big shebang, a moment so exciting that only funny-sounding words can express...

Russell F. Hirsch

The Hero’s Journey – Propelling Event

The beginning of THE END! We enter the third and final phase of a hero’s journey plot line. Act 3 Propelling Event Climax (aka Death &...

Russell F. Hirsch

Magic Magnets

Writing a book is like building a puzzle made out of magnets. My last post, about how a character’s wishes can kick-start a story, made...